We bought jackets for the boys 2 years ago and they were great! I'm planning to buy them again this year. The brand we have is "Free Country." I'm not sure if this is the same brand they're carrying this year, or in your area.

I'm in Washington and it's syrup for me.

:iagree:I may not have commute time but other than that, homeschooling is a full time job for me. Add to that the extra-curricular activities that take us out of the house 3 evenings per week, and I can't keep everything the way I'd like it. Our house is clean, but definitely has a "lived-in" look. Weekly meal planning keeps us eating homecooked meals, although simple is more my focus rather than elegant.

My 10yo and 12yo only cook on it with parental supervision. By cook, I mean they heat things on it like soup or Chef Boyardee :D . The 14yo cooks on it independently once in a while.

We it last year. Keep in mind that our family comes from more of a Charlotte Mason style of learning and we did not have a strong science background before beginning this curriculum. My boys really disliked reading only encyclopedias for their information. There were times that after reading the various encyclopedias the topic was not clear enough in their mind to write a few paragraphs on it. Meiosis and mitosis come to mind. I ended up needing to supplement with additional books or You Tube videos to illustrate concepts at times. The other challenge was that you didn't always know whether or not your experiment turned out correctly. I remember one microscope experiment where I spent at least an hour on the web trying to figure out if we had found what we were supposed to. This happened a couple of times during the first few weeks. Then we spent several weeks working with the Janice Van Cleave book and that was great! But once we went back to the experiments developed by the author, things got a bit murky again for us. We set CQ aside at the end of the year after completing about half the book. This year we're using Apologia which turned out to be a much better fit for our family.

Ours is up. :001_smile:

All this Allen talk has given me hope that my next great read is just around the corner :D ! I ordered a couple of her books from the library today.

:iagree:I absolutely love this verse. This was the one I was going to suggest as well.

Wonderful! I am so happy for you and your family :grouphug: .

Cutie patootie :001_smile: . Congratulations!

Good for you!!! :hurray::hurray::hurray:

I read Vicious Cycle by Terri Blackstock last week. Pretty far fetched if you ask me. It seems like I'll read one great book and then read 3 or 4 duds/so-so books before I find another great one. I guess I need to improve my book selecting skills! Today I'll start Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher.

Remember, you are NOT the rude neighbor causing problems. They are.

No, you are not over-reacting! I can't imagine anyone doing this and thinking it's okay!!! They are being extremely rude and presumptuous as well as trespassing on your property!

Using TOG's Writing Aids for my 8th grader. We came from Write Shop the year before which has all the expectations clearly spelled out for you. I love that curriculum. I don't like the way WA is laid out and I didn't feel confident that I was covering the topics well. We switched to WWS last week. We've only completed 2 days so far so I can't comment much on it yet.

Finally got ours up. I had sick kids this week and I think I'm coming down with it now :glare: .

At this link to Peacehill Press, it states that you can request a 20 week sample. I don't know if this still applies or not. I requested one yesterday and have not heard back yet.

At the time I did not have a relationship with my father, so no he didn't ask.

We did the Bonnie Risby series. The titles are Logic Countdown, Logic Liftoff, and Orbiting with Logic. You can look inside the books on Amazon.

Somewhat. :glare: There isn't anything that shows Day One cover ABC, Day Two DEF, etc. The block in the Tapestry curriculum itself tells what should be covered for the week. Since I don't know the ages of your kids I'll just pick an example from a mid-elementary level. Level 4 for Week 5 of Year 2 says to: practice taking dictation 3x learn about the 4 basic genres of paragraphs (it then lists them) learn how different graphic organizers help with pre-writing choose 2 topics and prewrite for them using graphic organizers. The topics listed are: What would it be like to be a Viking family, Explain what happened when a warrior died, Narrate what took place during a Viking raid, and "Be" a citizen of Sweden and persuade your neighbors to go "a-viking." When you purchase Writing Aids you get a book that is more a like a teacher reference book. It is not a lesson plan book. So for the above lesson you would look at the various graphic organizers and decide which ones work with which genre. The graphic organizers are all shown in the back of the Writing Aids book. You would also review the page titled genres to see what you need to cover with your student. There is a corresponding genre page on the Writing Aids disc that you would print out for the student. The idea is that the student follows along on his sheet as you cover the material. Then he keeps it for reference as he works the assignment. I started using Writing Aids for the first time with my 8th grader this year so I am no expert. I wish I had known how much direction I need from the writing curriculum itself. I need more "hand holding" than I'm getting from WA. This may be something you will want to consider as well.

Lunch will be grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. I'm thankful for the changes I'm seeing in my 14yo as he matures. Yesterday I was just thinking how much I'm enjoying him. He is developing a sense of humor where he was very serious before. It's fun sitting, talking, and laughing with him! One thing I wish for....hmmmm....that my youngest son's soccer team would win just ONE game this season! His team lost every single game last season and are off to the same start this season. Just one little win, that is my wish.

3 boys here :D .

Here's a link to a PDF file that discusses lab notebooks and reports. The PDF doesn't have a completed lab report but does give examples for each step along the way. He also has a lab grading sheet at the end. I'm thinking a student could also use it as a checklist to double check that their report has all the required elements.

Wow...I'm thankful he's okay. :grouphug: I can't imagine how frightening that must have been for all of you.

My story is similar to yours. I also want to lose about 15 pounds. I joined in August when they waived the joining fee. I signed up for 3 months of the online program and am down about 7 pounds so far. If I remember correctly, they calculate how many points you can eat daily based on several different factors like your current weight, height, activity level, etc. It was definitely worth joining for me.